The Mercer Island Rotary Club recently recognized Mercer Island High School students Aaron Tomaselli and Nicole Chen as the organization’s students of the month for November.

When presenting the awards to the students, MIHS world languages teacher Deana Wiatr said that Tomaselli is a “hard-working student of Spanish, an unassuming role model to his peers and a lifelong learner. As a Spanish student, he takes risks to express himself and encourages others to do the same.”

Since moving to Mercer Island from Australia, Tomaselli has been highly involved in the basketball community, both playing for the high school and coaching youth recreational teams. Additionally, he has both coached and played soccer on the island.

At MIHS, Tomaselli has been involved in Natural Helpers for the last three years, where he works on mental health and suicide prevention. He was also elected as a Bridges leader this year, where he works closely with the freshman in transitioning them to the high school. He is also a a peer mentor for the PLP students at MIHS, helping students with their homework and working with them on social skills.

Tomaselli also works at Homegrown, where he daily interacts with residents. Most recently, he became involved in YoungLife, where he is a student mentor for seventh-grade boys. YoungLife is a nonprofit Christian organization that works with the youth of Mercer Island, giving them a fun and safe place to learn about the Bible.

MIHS teacher Wiatr said Chen is “always cheerful and dependable. Her comprehension of Chinese language and culture has been increased exponentially through her six years of study. Her original goal for taking Chinese was to be able to communicate with her grandma and now she can easily understand and reply to her questions in Chinese and put the smiles on her grandma’s face.”

Chen’s GPS is 3.848 and she has taken several AP and honors classes at MIHS. She is a National Merit commended scholar. Chen participates in the school’s marching band as a clarinet section leader and is part of the top wind ensemble. She has played club volleyball from sixth to 11th grade and was a part of the MIHS junior varsity volleyball team freshman and sophomore year as well as captain junior year.

She currently volunteers as a coach for fourth to sixth-grade girls. Chen also volunteers as a counselor for Girls Rock Math, a math camp for girls.